Air India will launch first Israel–India flights early next month, “Yediot Ahronot” reports. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, flew Israel-India flights via El Al or stopover destinations such as Amman, Cairo, Istanbul and Kiev.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani and a senior delegation of Air India executives will visit Israel and formally announce the inauguration of the new route. Lohani will be the guests of Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin.

Currently El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. and foreign carriers operate the only flights between the two countries. It’s unclear whether Air India will fly to Tel Aviv from Mumbai or New Delhi._________________

Air India Ltd on 24 January moved the Supreme Court seeking reduction in charges at Delhi airport, court documents showed.

In its petition, Air India said Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), run by GMR Infrastructure Ltd, is recovering Rs300 crore every month through these charges, and at this rate, by March 2019, it would have collected a total of Rs17,157.15 crore against the originally targeted Rs7,709.61 crore. This would be an excess collection of Rs9,447.54 crore over and above the target revenue, Air India said in its petition seen by Mint.

The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), which includes IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir and Jet Airways, and controls nearly 90% of the domestic market share may support Air India, a person aware of the matter said, asking not to be named.

“In a nutshell, the airlines as well as the users have been fastened with a massive liability which otherwise is unwarranted in law due to operating stay (by Delhi High Court), without being afforded even an opportunity to be heard,” the airline said.

Delhi airport, which was modernized for nearly Rs13,000 crore in 2010, recoups part of this amount by charging passengers and airlines. Domestic passengers departing from DIAL are charged about Rs564 while international passengers are charged Rs1,301. Airlines pay their share through higher landing, parking and aircraft housing charges.

Airlines have frequently complained that DIAL is overcharging them, since the airport tariff regulator has ordered it to reduce these charges.

The money is recovered in so-called control periods. The first two-and-a-half-year control period ended in March 2014. The airport tariff regulator prescribed 96% lower charges for the second control period (2014-19) but the airport obtained a stay on the new tariff from the Delhi High Court, and continues to charge the old, higher rates. Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (Aera) then challenged it in Supreme Court which asked an appellate tribunal to look into it, where the case is pending.

Delhi International Airport (Pvt) Ltd spokesperson said, in response to a Mint query, that even in case of overcharging, the concept of truing-up will apply. Put plainly, the excess amount will be adjusted in the next control period so there won’t be any windfall benefits to the airport.

“Even in the unlikely case of any over-collection post AERAAT approvals, under the tariff determination principles of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, any excess collection during a control period is automatically trued up in the tariff for the next control period, thus ensuring the airport operator finally retains only what it is entitled to,” DIAL said.

FIA did not respond to an email seeking comments.

Charges at Delhi Airport are set by Aera based on the amount spent by the airport on development, its operational costs and fair rate of return.

“This was one thing where the government could have been passenger-friendly and said that while the legal battle can go on, lower charges need to be implemented rather than the other way around,” said a person aware of the economic formulation asking not to be named.

A former government official, who also declined to be named, identified two key points to the narrative.

One, in the first control period, the charges were high because they had to be squeezed into two and half years instead of the typical five years. This means charges for the second control period would anyway have been lower, since they are spread over five years.

Two, capital expenditure at the airport will be negligible in the current control period as the modernization work has already been executed. Even if there was an increase in cost of operations, the traffic growth has been in double digits, and charges will drop whichever way one calculates._________________

Delhi International Airport (DIAL) has asked Air India, via the ministry of civil aviation (MOCA), to vacate the Centaur hotel located near the airport so that it can build a fourth runway. The national carrier, according to senior executives, is reluctant to let go off the hotel since it would mean taking a hit of Rs 300 – Rs 350 crore. Consequently, it has asked for a compensation of an equivalent amount. DIAL—a joint venture between GMR Airports and Airports Authority of India—has not decided on how to offer a compensation.

An executive from Air India said taking a hit of R300-R350 crore at a time when the carrier is being revived will be difficult. “Moreover, several people will lose their daily livelihood. We expect some compensation from Dial or land in an equivalent place,” the executive said.

In a letter written in November, DIAL said it would give Air India twelve months – till November 2017 – to vacate the premises so that the building can be demolished.

In 1971 Air India built Centaur Hotel after setting up the Hotel Corporation of India. The hotel has, however, lost some business to new five star hotels in the vicinity especially to the newly- constructed Aero City.

The Centaur hotel has been set up over 45,000 square meters of land and has 3,085 saleable rooms. AAI was recently asked to renovate 100 rooms of the hotel and the work is expected to end in March. The lease of the land is currently up to 2032.
Air India has already invested Rs 110 crore in the hotel. In addition, the hotel has been loaned Rs 170 crore.

The hotel has 500 employees in Delhi and Air India’s internal calculations suggest it may need to set aside R150 crore – R160 crore for a voluntary retirement scheme since existing employees cannot be absorbed in any other arm of the national carrier.

The employees union, however, wants the employees to be absorbed in Air India and have already voiced their concern to some of the officials in MOCA.

According to a spokesperson of DIAL, in view of the airport development requirement, AAI had issued the Termination Notice on 08.11.2016 to Centaur Hotel and advised them to vacate and handover the land to AAI within the notice period. DIAL is abiding by the terms and conditions laid down in the OMDA and Lease Deed executed with AAI.

The Centaur hotel and its branches in Mumbai and Srinagar were once used by the crew members of Air India. “We were planning to revive the flight catering unit in the hotel to increase the revenues,” said another official of Air India.

Air India’s new Airbus A320 Neo takes first flight from Delhi to Chennai

February 24, 2017

Air India has put into operations its newly leased Airbus A320 Neo with its maiden flight arriving in Chennai from New Delhi.

The first A320 Neo aircraft with 161 passengers on board touched down at the Chennai International airport from the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 2030 hours on Thursday, the airline said in a release.

An inquiry committee, probing the “blind landing” of an Air India aircraft in nearzero visibility in Jaipur, has submitted its report, blaming a combination right from organisational factors to human errors for the 2014 incident that could have turned into a major tragedy had the plane exploded.

Although the inquiry conducted by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) got over in August 2016, the report was released on Thursday. The investigators — inquiry committee chairman R.S. Passi and members N.S. Dagar and Dhgruv Rebbapragada — also made several recommendations.

The incident took place on January 5, 2014, when an Air India flight (AI 890) from Guwahati to Delhi with 173 passengers on board was diverted to Jaipur, where visibility had dropped because of inclement weather. Mumbai Mirror had published a report, ‘Miracle in Jaipur’, in its front page on January 7, 2014.

The aircraft — an Airbus 320 — piloted by Captain Jalaj Vats was originally supposed to land in Delhi, but had to divert its path because of heavy smog in the national capital. Consequently, the aircraft was diverted to Lucknow, which had 2,000 meters visibility.

But the crew decided to head to Jaipur, ignoring the fast reducing visibility trend there, after a failed landing attempt in Delhi caused it to veer 40 nautical miles to the west of the national capital towards Rajasthan.

At the Jaipur airport, the airport had landed on soft ground to the left of the runway, careening up to 80 metres towards the left. As a result, the left wing of the plane hit a few trees, causing extensive damages to the aircraft, which, after veering towards the left, came back on the runway and halted.

It was sheer providence that the aircraft, despite having 2,400 kg fuel, did not explode.

Though the pilot had repeatedly tried to contact the Jaipur airport’s integrated operations control, no emergency response plan was activated. But the AAIB report pinned the blame on as much the airport and airline officials as the pilot.

“The flight crew made an erroneous decision of diverting and continuing to an airfield with reducing visibility. The flight crew attempted a manual landing in below minima conditions and there was lack of operational supervision and desired ground support to flight,” the AAIB report said.

It also said that internal quality assurance failed to pinpoint the hazards because of complacency and lack of oversight. Besides, there was a problem with the process of flight dispatch. A flight dispatcher uses software and assists in planning flight paths, taking into account aircraft performance and loading, en-route winds, thunderstorm and turbulence forecasts, airspace restrictions, and airport conditions. But in this case, no dispatcher had signed the dispatch sheet. In fact, the committee was told that the airline had opted for “self-dispatch”. However, the carrier could not provide any proof to this effect to the committee.

The inquiry team also said that the pilots were at fault as they had not checked the weather reports.

They suggested that the flight crew ought to be alert about weather conditions at the destinations and designated alternate airports, and must seek weather updates on board the flight from the airline or air traffic controllers._________________

In the third international flight from the city, Air India will launch its direct service to Bangkok from the first week of May at an introductory fare of Rs 15,000 for a return ticket.

The Bangkok flight will be thrice a week.

Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani told HT, “Since Bangkok is much sought-after destination, we are starting our direct flight to Bangkok in first week of May. We expect a good response as not going to Delhi will save six hours for people wanting to go to Bangkok. The flight will take-off in late evening as the journey takes around 5.30 hours.”

Air India is also planning to start a direct flight to Singapore for which no month has been finalised.

Centaur Hotel, a city landmark built for the 1982 Asian Games, will soon be consigned to history.

The Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) says the site of the hotel will be needed by December 2019 — by when it would have completed 37 years— to make way for aircraft parking bays as part of the terminal 3 expansion plan. "The site is not needed for the fourth runway as that will be built slightly ahead of it towards the existing third runway (29). But we have to make additional parking bays and the Centaur site is needed for that," said a senior airport official.

Run by Air India, the 376-room Centaur was a landmark when it opened because of its glitzy interiors. Its glass elevators visible from the central lobby, a novelty back then that only Le Meridien at Janpath boasted of, were a big hit. Today, it is a pale shadow of its original self due to years of mismanagement and poor upkeep. Despite its prime location, flyers began patronising other five-stars in Delhi and Gurgaon. AI is likely to ask for land elsewhere in the 4,608-acre IGI Airport complex in lieu of this site.

Meanwhile, the lifespan of another 1982-era structure at IGI Airport — terminal 2 — that was to be demolished in 2020 to make way for a brand new T4, may get extended. T2 served as the international terminal from 1982 to 2010, when T3 opened.

In 2010, T2 was mothballed and the Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) has now made it ready to handle domestic flights of some low cost carriers (LCCs) which will be shifted here from T1. T1 is currently used for all domestic arrivals and departures of IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. The combined traffic of these three airlines is more than the built capacity of T1 and DIAL is in talks with the three LCCs to shift a couple of them to T2 to decongest T1 as well as get space at T1 to begin expansion work there.

"Some of these LCCs are open to shifting entirely from T1 to T2 but they have only one issue — they move from T1 to T2 in early 2017 and then return to T1 in 2020, when T2 is scheduled to be demolished. They are not comfortable with the idea of shifting operations twice in three years. The budget airlines open to shifting have asked us to examine if T2 can be retained and T4 built nearby so that they don't need to move again in 2020," said the official.

This is the main reason why shifting of airlines from T1 is stuck despite the fact that the terminal is operating passengers more than its built capacity, leading to severe congestion during peak morning and evening hours. Aviation secretary R N Choubey is trying to end this impasse as decongesting T1is a must to end flyers' misery as well as to create space here to begin expansion work. Since T4 will not be built in one go like T3, DIAL may go in for a phased construction allowing T2 to survive a little longer._________________

The government-owned Air India is keeping all options "open" on the type of wide-body aircraft, which it plans to lease, including the latest jetliner from Airbus, A350.

The European aviation major Airbus is scheduled to a give a formal presentation to the national airline early next month in this regard, sources have said.

At present Air India has wide-body planes from the US aircraft maker Boeing Inc, while its narrow-body fleet consists of Airbus planes.

The airline used to operate wide body A330 till a few years ago. However, it phased them out after inducting Boeing 787-800s in the fleet.

The Air India Board has recently given approval to the airline to lease five wide-body planes in the fleet, which are to be inducted between January and March next year.

"We have not yet decided about the manufacturer. We are keeping all options open on this. Some time back, Airbus had given us an initial proposal for its newest jetliner A350. We are evaluating this as well," a highly placed Air India official said.

Airbus is likely to give a detailed presentation on the performance of its wide-body products including A350 to Air India on March 8, the official said.

The official added that the airline would consider all parameters including fuel efficiency as well as lease rentals before choosing the type of aircraft.
As part of its domestic and international capacity augmentation plans, Air India is expected to induct 34 aircraft including five wide-body planes over the next two years._________________

Two Air India engineers were grounded on Monday as they reportedly "forgot" to remove pins from landing gear - which ensure that wheels of an aircraft on ground do not accidentally retract - while clearing a plane to take off. Due to this, the pilots could not retract the wheels on getting airborne and had to return soon after take off.

This unprecedented lapse took place on Monday when an AI aircraft was being prepared at Delhi for flying to Kochi. "The plane was cleared to take off by engineering and when the wheels did not retract once in air, the pilots had to return to Delhi on an urgent basis. Delhi air traffic control ensured that the plane returned without any delay once the pilot indicate that he had to turn back," said a source.

On landing, the aircraft was examined and the pins were found attached to the landing gear. The same were removed and the plane then took off again for Kochi after a detailed examination. The airline informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of this lapse and the regulator immediately grounded two aircraft maintenance engineers (AME) who had cleared the plane for take off.

Confirming this, a senior AI official said, "The landing gear pins were not removed due to which the aircraft had to turn back. DGCA has derostered the shift in-charge and the engineer who cleared the plane for take off and we are also investigating this issue. It was a slip by the engineers who were busy on something else and forgot to remove the pins on the landing gear."

Alliance Air, the regional arm of Air India, plans to connect cities in South India with Colombo.

Confirming the development, Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, told BusinessLine that Alliance Air which till now has been focussing on domestic flights is also looking to spread its wings abroad.

Plans areafoot to connect Dhaka, Kathmandu and Male from various Indian cities, officials indicated.

Alliance has already applied to the authorities for permission to start international operations and is working on plans to enhance its fleet strength to get to 20 aircraft, the minimum number required to begin international operations as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The fleet of Alliance Air largely consists of turbo-propelled ATR aircraft.

A senior airline official indicated that Alliance Air will scale up to 20 aircraft within the next “six to nine months”.

The start of flights by Alliance Air will not see the withdrawal of flights that Air India is operating to either Kathmandu, Male or Dhaka, officials said. Air India Express, the low-cost arm of Air India, recently launched a non-stop flight from Delhi to Dhaka.

On the domestic front, Alliance Air plans to start services between Vizag-Vijayawada-Tirupati, apart from operating flights connecting Chennai to Coimbatore and Chennai to Madurai. The airline is also looking to see Alliance Air launch flights from Delhi to Pathankot, Lucknow and Udaipur apart from a service connecting the national capital to Jaipur and Agra.

Also on the cards is a flight linking Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad-Indore-Raipur-Kolkata, which will be called the ‘Garland flight’._________________

Air India announced Thursday that it plans on running three direct flights a week to and from Israel. The airline filed a request with the Airports Authority to run flights between New Delhi and Tel Aviv, a route that is not currently in existence.

The CEO of Air India, Ashwani Lohani, will arrive in Israel next week to for talks, the airline said. The airline announced several months ago that it was interested in opening up routes to Israel, and the trip next week will, sources in the Tourism Ministry said, enable Lohani to close the deal with Israeli authorities.

In a quest to set a new world record, Air India has operated a flight around the world with an all-women crew ahead of International Women’s Day.

The flight which departed from here on February 27 for San Francisco, returned at the Indira Gandhi International airport today after flying across the globe.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200LR, flew over the Pacific last week on its journey to San Francisco, while the return flight flew over the Atlantic, encircling the globe, Air India said today.

An Air India spokesperson said the airline has already applied for a Guinness World Record and Limca Book of Records for this feat.Air India is the first Indian carrier to operate on the Pacific route which has reduced the flying time by up to three hours.

Apart from the cockpit and cabin crew, check-in and ground handling staff, and engineers who certified the aircraft were all women, Air India said.

It added that the Air Traffic Controllers who cleared the departure and arrival of the aircraft were also women._________________

Air India has issued a tender seeking landing gear overhaul services for a Boeing 707-337C aircraft.

Tender documents show that the aircraft is registered VT-DXT and is operated by the Indian Air Force. The 1968-vintage unit is maintained by Air India’s MRO unit, Air India Engineering Services.

The gears needing overhaul covers the nose landing gear, as well as the right and left main landing gears. These gears have been planned for removal on 20 July.

Interested MROs are to have provided landing gear overhaul services to two airlines which operate Boeing aircraft, and must provide a minimum warranty of 1200 flight cycles or 12 months, whichever occurs earlier.

Bids are to be sent by 27th March at 16:00 local time to Air India’s materials management department in Mumbai.

The summer schedule of flights will be implemented with effect from March 25 and will run up to October 24 for inbound and outbound flights at the city airport. With this, the timings of four international flights will be preponed. State-run carrier, Air India has rescheduled four of its international flights to New York and London by an hour and a half.

Airline officials confirmed the information stating the changes have been made in the wake of change in time owing to daylight savings. With effect from March 25, four Air India flights AI171 and AI172 on the Ahmedabad-London-New York-London-Ahmedabad sector and AI175 and AI176 on the Ahmedabad-London-Ahmedabad sector will be changed.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up national carrier Air India for the inordinate delay in the process of leasing narrow body planes for replacing its vintage A320 aircraft.

The inordinate delay defeated the objective of reducing maintenance costs by way of inducting new planes in their place, according to the CAG report tabled in Parliament today.

The Company took more than three years (May 2010-August 2013)) to float the global tender after recommendation of the consultant and five years to induct the aircraft.

Global network consultant SH&E had in May 2010 observed that the 1989-1994 vintage Airbus A-320 planes with V2500-A1 engines were "uneconomical" and needed to be phased out "urgently" as maintenance cost of these aircraft was USD four million per year per aircraft.

"The SH&E recommended immediate leasing of 10 A-320s or B-737s to replace these classic aircraft. During July 2010, the Board considered and approved the recommendation of the network consultant for dry leasing of 10 new A-320 aircraft in March 2010," the report said.

As per the report, the Air India Board was apprised that turnaround plan (TAP) envisaged aggressive fleet induction.

"However, the same would involve incremental lease charge which was risky keeping in view the financial position of Air India. Therefore, pending government approval for financial Restructuring Plan and financial constraints of Air India, aircraft induction had not progressed," it noted.

In May, 2013, the Board approved the fleet renewal plan, envisaging leasing of 19 A320 units as replacement capacity to maintain network and authorised management to issue Request for Proposal for the same.

According to CAG, China Aircraft Leasing Company (CALC) was the sole qualified bidder, which submitted its bids through e-mail which was in contravention of the general terms and conditions of tender.

"However, CALC was given a chance to furnish bids as per tender requirements and tender closing dates were extended twice. Audit noticed that two of the other shortlisted bidders (Bank of China and AWAS, Singapore) had withdrawn their bids," it said.

Air India executed a lease agreement with CALC for inducting five A-320 aircraft in June 2014.

The company has also signed a lease agreement for 14 A-320 aircraft in March 2016 delivery of which has already commenced from last month.

"Though the consultant pointed out urgent need for the aircraft, Air India could induct only five aircraft till March 2016, (after a delay of five years)," the CAG said.

Air India in its reply informed the CAG that "though concerted efforts were made to replace the old classic fleet, no suitable aircraft was available in the market for which the deal could be concluded. Therefore, the airline concluded the deal in two parts with CALC and ALAFCO (of Kuwait)._________________

An Air India Ahmedabad-London flight lost contact with air traffic controls over Hungarian airspace, leading to a fighter jet scrambling after it. It had 249 passengers and crew on board

In military parlance, scrambling is the act of quickly getting military aircraft airborne to react to an immediate threat, usually to intercept hostile aircraft.

The jets escorted the flight till it regained communication and it subsequently landed safely at the London Heathrow airport.

Last month, a Jet Airways Mumbai-London flight lost communications with Germany's air traffic controls on ground while flying over the country's airspace, leading the German air force to scramble two jets after it. _________________

Incident: Air India B788 over Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia on Mar 10th 2017, loss of communication

An Air India Boeing 787-800, registration VT-ANT performing flight AI-171 from Ahmedabad (India) to London Heathrow,EN (UK) with 231 passengers and 18 crew, was enroute at FL400 entering Hungarian Airspace at about 08:42Z, the crew however did not report on Budapest Center. While the aircraft continued along its planned flight track across Hungary and Slovakia Czech fighter aircraft were dispatched to intercept the aircraft and met the aircraft over Czechia at 09:22Z, the captain of the B788 hand signalled that the flight and flight crew was okay, they were experiencing technical trouble. The fighter aircraft escorted the Boeing 787 through Czech Airspace, German fighter aircraft took over to escort the aircraft through German Airspace as the aircraft entered German Airspace. The B788 crew manged to restore radio communication at 09:36Z (loss of communication for 54 minutes) already in German Airspace, Germany's, Belgium's and UK's Airforce escorted the aircraft for the remainder of the journey to a safe landing in London Heathrow at 10:57Z.

The occurrence aircraft remained on the ground in London for 3:15 hours, then departed for the onward leg to Newark,NJ (USA) with a delay of about 45 minutes.

Operators of German nuclear power plants reported they were instructed to evacuate three nuclear power plants in Germany due to the loss of communication between DFS (Deutscher Flugsicherung) and AI-171.

The government-owned Air India is keeping all options "open" on the type of wide-body aircraft, which it plans to lease, including the latest jetliner from Airbus, A350.

The European aviation major Airbus is scheduled to a give a formal presentation to the national airline early next month in this regard, sources have said.

At present Air India has wide-body planes from the US aircraft maker Boeing Inc, while its narrow-body fleet consists of Airbus planes.

The airline used to operate wide body A330 till a few years ago. However, it phased them out after inducting Boeing 787-800s in the fleet.

The Air India Board has recently given approval to the airline to lease five wide-body planes in the fleet, which are to be inducted between January and March next year.

"We have not yet decided about the manufacturer. We are keeping all options open on this. Some time back, Airbus had given us an initial proposal for its newest jetliner A350. We are evaluating this as well," a highly placed Air India official said.

Airbus is likely to give a detailed presentation on the performance of its wide-body products including A350 to Air India on March 8, the official said.

The official added that the airline would consider all parameters including fuel efficiency as well as lease rentals before choosing the type of aircraft.
As part of its domestic and international capacity augmentation plans, Air India is expected to induct 34 aircraft including five wide-body planes over the next two years.

Air India will lease six additional widebody aircraft—either Boeing 777-300ERs or 787-9s—as its international expansion plan continues.

Air India CCO and board member Pankaj Srivastava told ATW in an exclusive interview that the carrier is in the midst of an evaluation process. “When we get the report, we will come up with a request for proposal [RFP] very soon.” He added, “The 787-9 could come sometime toward the end of 2018 or middle of 2019."_________________

NEW DELHI: The wait for a long flight to land could never have been more desperate than for the almost 340 people on board Air India's Delhi-Chicago nonstop on Saturday. A Boeing 777 was released for the 16-hour journey with four toilets closed before take off itself and ALL the remaining eight others also packing up by the time it was a good two hours away from the destination!
The condition of passengers on the aircraft - that had 324 adults and seven infants as passengers apart from 16 crew members - was understandably bad as the plane had taken off at 2 am in the morning from Delhi. A hearty breakfast, full meal and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages were served during the course of the flight. First there were long queues at the eight operational toilets and then there were no queues as all the lavs were unusable!

Air India's loos in the news again
Who are these f**kw**its who throw sanitary pads and bottles in the loo?
When are we ever going to get civilized as a country? Its bloody apalling!_________________I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

NEW DELHI: The wait for a long flight to land could never have been more desperate than for the almost 340 people on board Air India's Delhi-Chicago nonstop on Saturday. A Boeing 777 was released for the 16-hour journey with four toilets closed before take off itself and ALL the remaining eight others also packing up by the time it was a good two hours away from the destination!
The condition of passengers on the aircraft - that had 324 adults and seven infants as passengers apart from 16 crew members - was understandably bad as the plane had taken off at 2 am in the morning from Delhi. A hearty breakfast, full meal and alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages were served during the course of the flight. First there were long queues at the eight operational toilets and then there were no queues as all the lavs were unusable!

Air India's loos in the news again
Who are these f**kw**its who throw sanitary pads and bottles in the loo?
When are we ever going to get civilized as a country? Its bloody apalling!

While AI is not to blame for the remaining 8, however 4 toilets were inoperable before take off. If all 12 were working, perhaps, all will be working for the journey.

Air India will complete the procurement of all the 27 Dreamliners by October, 2017 as per the contract, MoS for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

“Air India has acquired 23 Dreamliners progressively from September, 2012 to January 9, 2017. The Dreamliners aircraft have experienced technical reliability issues, since induction into Air India fleet. These issues, however, do not affect the safety of the airplane due to the system design and inbuilt system redundancy. Further, system improvements are incorporated as a part of reliability enhancement process and the glitches have significantly reduced,” the minister informed the Upper House.

Sinha said one B787-8 aircraft will be delivered in July this year, two B-787-8 aircraft by August and one B787-8 aircraft by October, 2017, the minister said.

Alliance Air will soon be operating a flight from Bangalore to Colombo via Madurai, according to Air India’s regional director, southern region, Captain S Arulmani.

Speaking to Express at a function organised to honour top travel agents of Chennai who have achieved high sales and helped Air India grow further on late Friday night, he said schedules are being planned in this regard.

He said Alliance Air has planned to operate the Colombo flight from Madurai as it was along the expectations of the travelling public

In a major victory for government-owned Air India, the airline won an arbitration case against US-based air charter company Dynamic International Airways, putting an end to an over three-year legal tussle between the two parties. The order given by arbitrato, former Comptroller and Auditor General P Sesh Kumar, will require the US-based charter operator pay an amount of around Rs 65.71 crore to the national airline.

The arbitrator has also rejected Dynamic Airways’ counter claims of Rs 108.45 crore from Air India.

Air India now plans to move the US judiciary so that the order can be enforced under US laws. Dynamic being a US-based company, it is necessary that the hearing is done in US courts under the United States Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 21 U.S.T 2517.

Air India will also file a caveat petition in Delhi High Court, so that in case the award is challenged by Dynamic, Air India gets an advance notice of hearing.

An Air India spokesperson said it was a major victory for the company following a prolonged legal battle. “It will help to recoup the airline’s expenses and we will take all steps to enforce the award in foreign jurisdiction against the party,” the spokesperson said. Business Standard could not immediately contact the spokesperson of Dynamic Airways.

Under an agreement signed in 2014, US-based Dynamic was supposed to provide aircraft to Air India to carry passengers during Haj. Air India is the nodal carrier from India for undertaking Haj operations.

Problems started once operation started. Dynamic Airways arbitrarily reduced the number of planes it originally agreed to provide. Dynamic agreed to carry only two-thirds of the 36,000 passengers who were supposed to fly from India to Saudi Arabia and back. This resulted in massive mismanagement of the Haj operations in 2014, leading to several flights being cancelled or delayed by several hours, and numerous cases of lost baggage. The situation was so serious that the Saudi envoy to India criticised Air India for operations, following which Air India stopped outsourcing Haj services to external parties.

Dynamic had earlier filed a notice before the US courts that the dispute should be heard in US, not in India. A US federal court rejected the claims allowing the arbitration case to be settled in India.

Dynamic also said that P Sesh Kumar was not an eligible arbitrator in this case as he was a former Government of India employee and under Indian Arbitration Law, anyone who has past or present business relationship with a party is disqualified to oversee such a dispute.

"About 35 planes would come this year and we have to fly them. Of these, six will be long-haul planes which will go international with one return flight a day. We are participating aggressively in government’s regional connectivity scheme Udan. We have ordered 10 ATRs and we are ordering 10 more this year so our ATR fleet would become 30 by end of 2017. In the next two years, we are looking to add 20-25 planes so I will have a 50-plane airline in the country."

Yogi Adityanath's swearing-in ceremony in Lucknow led to a mad scramble of seats on all commercial flights to Lucknow on Sunday.

To ensure that no one was left out, state-owned Air India deployed its biggest aircraft, the 423-seater Boeing 747, on this route, which went with little less than half its seats full. Former Congressman N D Tiwari was the closest to a VIP on that flight.

With no B-777 available at such a short notice, the Maharaja operated the less-used Jumbo Jet to Lucknow at 9 am with 200 people on board.

The Boeing 747, which ferries the President, Prime Minister and VP on long international flights, could not have operated with a full load of 423 passengers on the relatively small runway at Amausi. It operated with what is called "load penalty" - when an aircraft has to fly with a limited load by flying some seats empty and carrying less cargo - to operate on a smaller-than-required runway or on very hot summer days.

The decision to deploy a big plane was taken as the top Central leadership did not want any person, who wanted to attend the swearing-in, to be left out in Delhi for want of an airline seat.

"We are told that most VIPs had made their own arrangement and many had arrived early morning by train," an airport official privy to the development told TOI. Lucknow airport director P K Srivastava confirmed the Boeing 747 landed with only 200 passengers. "But for N D Tewari, no important delegate arrived on the plane," said an airport official.

Air India is planning to have Wi-Fi on board its Airbus A-320 planes that are the mainstay of its domestic operations. Once this happens, other Indian airlines may follow suit.

"We are working on having Wi-Fi on our planes. We have issued expression of interest and will take the aircraft manufacturer's nod to install Wi-Fi equipment. Though giving an exact date is difficult, we are aiming to start this by June or July," AI chief Ashwani Lohani said.

AI did not specify how much data and what speed it is looking at.

Since the connection is likely to be free, it may start with a basic pack for free and later move on to paid data packs. The free basic pack will allow receiving and sending mails and checking WhatsApp.

Depending on passenger feedback, AI may go in for bigger paid data packs. Leading international airlines that offer on board Wi-Fi have been following this model.

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on Thursday hit an Air India staff with his slipper over a seating issue.

The first time MP from Maharashtra’s Osmanabad admitted that he has hit the staff. “Yes, I beat him as he misbehaved with me. I hit Air India staffer 25 times. Do you expect me to hear their abuses quietly?” Gaikwad said.

Sources in Air India confirmed the incident and said that the parliamentarian got into an argument with the airline staff because he could not travel in business class and had to fly in economy class.

The incident took place on a Pune- Delhi flight AI 851.

Sources told DNA that the MP had booked a business class ticket but Air India made a last moment announcement that the aircraft won't be able to provide business class accommodation. It asked business class passengers to either take a refund or shift to economy class. Gaikwad decided to fly in the economy class but he got into an argument with the airline staff soon after the flight took off.

"The flight landed in Delhi around 9:40 am and that's when the argument turned into a scuffle as Gaikwad refused to deboard. The staff tried to pacify him but he refused to calm down and hit a staff with his slippers," an airline source told DNA.

Air India has ordered a probe into the matter. "We have constituted a team to probe the whole incident," Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.